Mobile communication devices are widely used among various user groups. Conventional mobile communication devices allow users to communicate with one another via voice, text, and multimedia messages. Also, many mobile communication devices allow users to access information available over the Internet. Thus, mobile communication devices increase the ability and the number of ways that people can communicate with each other.
With the wide use of mobile communication devices, there is a strong demand to send location-based messages, including notifications, to users of these mobile communication devices. Various service providers and advertisers are particularly interested in sending location-based messages, including commercial and emergency notifications, to users of mobile communication devices based on the current locations of the mobile communication devices.
There are various techniques to determine the current locations of mobile communication devices. Some of these location techniques are handset-based techniques, which require special hardware, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), and/or software in the mobile communication devices to provide geographical location information of the mobile communication devices to the network access provider. Other location techniques are network-based techniques, which require the network infrastructure of the network access providers to extract the geographical location information of the mobile communication devices using various data transmitted between the network access providers and the mobile communication devices.
A concern with the handset-based location techniques is that not all mobile communication devices may have the appropriate hardware and/or software to provide the geographical location information, which means a different location technique must be used to determine the locations of these mobile communication devices. A concern with the network-based location techniques is that the constant process of determining the locations of the mobile communication devices will significantly tax the network infrastructure.
In view of the above concerns, there is a need for a system and method for sending location-based messages to mobile communication devices without requiring special hardware and/or software in the mobile communication devices, and without taxing the network infrastructure.